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CDC denies merger talks

The Chairman of the main opposition Congress for Democratic Change or CDC has described recent media reports of ‘CDC-Brumskine Talks’ as ‘total falsehood’.

Nathaniel McGill says reports that the CDC was in discussions with Cllr. Charles Brumskine’s Liberty Party for a political merger in 2017 Presidential and Legislative Elections lack the basics of journalism.

He told a news conference in Monrovia Wednesday that the CDC has not initiated any political discussion with the Liberty Party for the Presidency, saying that the basis of the author’s story was complete falsehood, lies and total fallacy - only intended to appease some politicians, who may dream of contesting with the CDC in the 2017 elections.

One of the reports in a local daily suggested on Wednesday that Cllr. Brumskine was expected to become standard bearer of the purported merger. But detailing his argument, McGill says it was unimaginable that media practitioners and head of the Liberty Party would choose to create such myth called story.

“The story reported in the media is totally far from the reality; while it is true that the CDC is holding discussions with political party heads and politicians for the growth and betterment of Liberia, the CDC that I’m the national chairman of, is not discussing with the Liberty Party,” he said.

The report, quoting the national Chairman of the Liberty Party, Cllr. Jonathan Fonati Koffa, indicated that the discussions between the two parties were nearing closure-i. e, both CDC and Liberty party had reached a logical conclusion for the 2017 Presidential election.

But McGill told the news conference that if the CDC was holding discussions on political merger with another political party, it wouldn’t have taken place in the dark, saying, the relevant stakeholders of such party would have been in the know as the discussions unfolded. “I have received over ‘500 calls’ from partisans and sympathizers about this story. If the Liberty Party wants political discussions, they should come upfront and stop making up stories to only create dark clouds over the functions and future of the masses-driven party,” the CDC Chairman responded.

It can be recalled that prior to the 2011 Presidential Election, the Liberty Party and the Congress for Democratic Change began a deal for a merger in Accra, Ghana, but such political dream short-lived long before the election – a failure blamed on George Manneh Weah, the Political Leader of the CDC.

Weah and his party later struck another deal with then standard bearer of the National Democratic Party of Liberia or NDPL Winston A. Tubman as standard bearer of the CDC and Mr. Weah as his running-mate in 2011. By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor - Editing by George Barpeen and Jonathan Browne